How to Become an Absentee Business Owner

A while back, I had a first call with a new client about implementing the Great Game of Business into her company.

I wanted to talk about a couple of lessons from that call I think you’ll find useful.

The first steps in implementing GGOB frameworks into any company is:

1. Share your “why”

2. Start with the right leadership

Let’s break down what that looked like for this client.

Sharing your “why”

This client owns an in-home healthcare agency, providing nursing services for seniors in their final years.

Her main “why” for implementing GGOB was to walk away from the day-to-day operations, and hand over the reins to her team.

That reminded me of a funny story about a GGOB coach named Kevin Walter:

He owned a catering company with his two brothers.

After playing the GGOB for about ten years, their employees were managing the day-to-day with zero help needed.

The business became such a well-oiled machine, that one day they basically kicked Kevin and his brothers out the door and said “we’ve got this from here.”

That’s what happens when you create a team of employees that think and act like owners!

Starting with the right leadership

On the call, we also talked about creating a Design Team for her agency.

This team designs the GGOB practices for a company — defining the Critical Numbers, creating Scoreboards, etc.

How do you build a great Design Team?

I’ll tell you what I told this client.

You need two key ingredients:

1. They have to share the characteristics, qualities, and core values of Great Game leaders

I.e., humility, vulnerability, servant leadership, and a genuine belief that your people can learn the business.

2. Someone from each level of the organization should be on the Design Team.

Senior managers, supervisors, and hourly employees... everyone should be represented.

Nailing both points feeds back perfectly into her “why.”

With the right leadership in place, she can become an absentee owner, knowing that her home health clients are getting exceptional care from nurses who think and act like owners.

Here’s the key takeaway from this call...

If you want to step back from day-to-day operations, you’ll need to create a business that runs without micromanagement.

And implementing Open Book Management is one of the best ways to do that.

At Open Book CFO, we help agencies like yours to:

• Give your managers the tools and financial insight they need to lead — making smart decisions and pushing projects forward on their own

• Pick Critical Numbers that move the needle — guiding your team to focus on metrics that directly impact profit and drive growth

• Create scoreboards tied to bonuses — giving employees a clear line of sight between their daily work and the company’s bottom line

Want to chat about how we can implement OBM into your business?

Book a 30-minute strategy call with me here.

And we’ll be back Thursday with more tips for building a better agency!

— Nick Kringas
Founder of Open Book CFO